Radio Frequency (RF) transmissions are becoming increasingly ubiquitous in today's wirelessly connected world. For instance, cell phone usage is rapidly increasing around the world, high-speed data networks are spreading, and home wireless and wide-area networks are becoming commonplace. In the midst of these and other similar advances, now more than ever, it is crucial that test and measurement instruments provide effective search capabilities so that an accurate picture of what has happened can be reconstructed and provided to field personnel such as test engineers and other qualified technicians.
RF carrier signals can transmit information in a variety of ways based on variations in the amplitude, frequency, or phase of the carrier. Governments typically apportion radio frequency ranges to be used for different purposes. As a result, certain devices are permitted to operate only within predetermined bands. Such limitations result in ever more complex and efficient methods for adapting to these constraints and abiding by accepted communications standards. For example, many modern transmission systems use frequency hopping and phase modulation to conform to communication standards and to provide improved functionality and interoperability among different devices competing for similar resources.
Most modern Real Time Spectrum Analyzers (RTSAs) can receive the RF signals and store a record of captured data associated with the signals. However, using conventional techniques it is difficult or impossible to search and isolate certain aspects of these signals, such as time-domain events in the RF data. There does not exist any method for searching through captured RF signal data for relevant time-domain phenomenon. Therefore, a need remains for new devices and methods for searching previously stored records of RF signal data for time-domain events.